Nelson is to declare it wants to be a host city for the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

The city council's governance committee agreed this week to forward an expression of interest to the organising authority - a move which has the full backing of the Nelson Cricket Association.

General manager Ed Shuttleworth was pleased the bid would be tabled.

"We see something like this as having a huge impact on the region, particularly on our strategy and plans to have international games at Saxton Oval as soon as possible," Mr Shuttleworth said.

Acting Nelson Mayor Ali Boswijk said all the council had agreed to do so far was "not to shut the door" on the opportunity to play a part in the event.

"We'll see how far this [expression of interest] takes us, but a final decision would be contingent upon consultation procedures, such as through the annual plan," Mrs Boswijk said. She said potential liability on ratepayers was widely discussed by councillors in the public-excluded part of Tuesday's governance meeting.

"Anything we'd do would have to have absolute certainty and not be a big burden on ratepayers," she said.

Mr Shuttleworth said Nelson Cricket would be willing to support any involvement to the best of its ability, but until it was known just what Nelson's involvement might be, it was hard to say how that might play out.

Mrs Boswijk said Nelson had to be realistic about its chances of being selected to take part, given that half the world cup games would be in Australia and half in New Zealand.

"Having said that, we have a great facility and Cricket NZ has encouraged us to be involved."

The Nelson Mail reported in 2008 the city was being eyed as a host region for a share of the 2015 Cricket World Cup action.

New Zealand Cricket then encouraged Nelson to host a team and two preliminary games during the event, the former council heard.

The 2015 world cup is being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The locations of the games will be evenly split between the two countries.

Nelson has for several years indicated an interest in being part of the event, which was part of the incentive for completion of the $3.8 million cricket, athletics and football pavilion at Saxton Field.

The venue was known nationally and New Zealand Cricket was "very interested and very keen to have major games there", the city council said in 2010.

Council executive manager of community services Roger Ball said yesterday the city had a November 12 deadline in which to submit its bid. He said the regional economic development agency with help from Sport Tasman would prepare the bid.

The council had been asked to provide more information including the economic and social consequences of hosting.

"We also need to talk to the Tasman District Council about the possibility of their involvement," Mr Ball said.

Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne said the district council had not discussed the issue, but a staff report was due to come to the council soon.

Mr Kempthorne said he was happy to discuss the Cricket World Cup with Nelson City Council but the district council's event funding was limited.

The Saxton sports venue is jointly owned by the two councils.

Approval for world cup venues will not be made until next year.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Comments